Ned's Review of Elections

We would like to provide our many friends with our humble review of the past several presidential elections, starting with that of 1968. In this election, Richard Nixon edged Humphrey by a whisker. The impact of this was hard to tell, other than it led to Watergate. We feel that HHH would have enmeshed the country as far into Vietnam as Tricky Dick did, and so a HHH election would have made little difference. 1972: Here, regrettably McGovern, a true hero and fine all around man, would have made a much finer president that a second Nixon term, but the stars were aligned against him, so we got what we got. 1976: Carter edged Ford, and it probably made little difference because both were honorable men. However, Ned recalls being torn as to whom to vote for. At the last minute, Ford came out and endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, and this sealed his fate in Ned's eyes. 1980: The country's great Descent Into Horror began with the election of Reagan. Ned voted for Anderson who had the courage to tell Americans something they didn't want to hear: that they needed to pay higher gas prices. And so the Script Reader was elected, who then proceeded to run up budget deficits as far as the eye could see, all the while cementing his reputation as a "small government" man. Moreover, the pandering to the Ignorant Masses, always dangerous in the country where ignorance is a prince if not king, began in earnest. 1984: Never in doubt, but we voted for Mondale, in spite of his selection of Geraldine Ferraro as his VP, a Limousine Liberal if there ever was one. 1988: We naturally voted for Dukakis, having been repelled by the extent to which George HW Bush prostituted his principles to get the nomination, and then ran the disgusting attack ads against Dukakis. Sound familiar? The Bush presidency was a disaster, solely because he chose Clarence Thomas for the SCOTUS, one of the most glaring mediocrities ever nominated for public office since Caligula made his horse a Consul. This continues to curse the country to this day. The Clinton years were as a breath of fresh air-forget about sexual shenanigans that would make any European laugh.
Then we come to 2000, and wonder to this day how Gore managed to lose--the electoral vote of course. The 'selection' of Cheerleader George Bush may have set this country on a course of unavoidable decline, leading to the overweening hubris of Iraq, and "Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside US." But more maddening to us is the re-election of Bush in 2004, facilitated by the Dems choosing just about the only candidate who couldn't beat him. We fully supported Obama in 2008, and note with contempt and disgust the racially-motivated hatred of him by the GOP.
We predict an Obama victory tonight, but await the outcome with fear and loathing. A Romney victory would cement this country as consisting of an electorate far too stupid to be entrusted with the vote, but we shall see.

Two GRIM October elevenths

Ned's friends may recall that on October 11, 2002, a craven Congress acceded to the lies and calumny of the criminal Bush Regime and "authorized the use of force" against Iraq, a country that had never attacked the U.S. The betrayal by Congress took place only after a cascade of lies and misinformation from Bush and his stooges, including Dan Senor, Don Rumsfeld (who should be behind bars), Condoleeeeezzzzza Rice (ditto), Colin Powell (who should have resigned if he had a bit of self-respect),  and, most infamously of all, Dick Cheney, who should, along with his sock puppet Bush, have been tried for war crimes years ago.
And on October 11, 2011, a craven, crazed Congress, under the thumb of the GOP neanderthals, refused to pass the Obama Jobs Bill, which, at $477 billion would, according to impartial economists, have added 2% to the country's GDP and generated 2 MILLION jobs, at an interest cost of perhaps $6 billion a year. What a different place this country would have been if neither of these nefarious activities had taken place.
Ned wishes his friends a happy VP debate.

The Bush "Taker 47%"

Ned would like to remind his many friends that Willard Romney and his Li'l Buddy run around the country sneering at the 47% of Americans who "pay no income tax" and who thus in their words are slackers and parasites. But let us take our thoughts, painful as it may be, back to the criminal regime of George Bush and Dick Cheney. During the 2004 vice-presidential 'debate' between Cheney, who is unaccountably still at large and not in custody, and John Edwards, Cheney PROUDLY boasted of the Bush/GOP tax policies that had "TAKEN MILLIONS OF AMERICANS OFF THE TAX ROLLS" so "that they now (as of 2004) paid NO INCOME TAX."
Ned would ask these representatives of the GOP-- i.e, Romney and Ryan, if they supported these socialist, enabling policies or if they railed against them as creating millions of parasites, sucking nutriment out of the Public Intestine?
We respectfully await their response.

The Future of Medicaid

Medicaid, as Ned's friends know well, is a program that assists very low income Americans to pay their often outrageous and grievous medical bills. What many of his friends may not know is how much of Medicaid goes to pay for nursing care, most of this in for-profit "homes" that cater to the very frail and Alzheimers-ridden of our very elderly. Now, the Sneering Plutocracy need read no farther, because this program does not affect them, since they have enough filthy lucre, flayed from the backs of employees and shareholders, to pay for anything. No, Medicaid pays for, we are given to understand, about half of the nursing home bills of the very elderly. Without it, they will simply be thrown out onto the streets to starve, or dumped onto their children or relatives. In this context, Ned points to seven years ago today, September 7 2005, when 32 residents of a nursing home in New Orleans DROWNED as they were not evacuated during Katrina, one of our Bush legacies. Most of these pathetic oldsters were of course on Medicaid.
And so, friends, if the GOP have their way and turn Medicaid into a political football funded by "block grants" to the states, expect your frail parents to have to exhaust their life savings (and your inheritance) in order to qualify for Medicaid, and then to be thrown out into the streets when their block grant runs out.
So we pass another milestone in The Greatest Country That Ever Was Or Ever Can Possibly Be In The  Whole World.

Anniversary of a Bush Outrage!

Ten years ago today, Aug 21, 2002, Ned's friends will no doubt recall these comments from then-generalissimo and widely acknowledged war criminal George Bush: "No decision has been made on Iraq, but we believe the world would benefit by regime change." Of course all Ned's friends know that was just one of the many blatant, felonious lies told by that lizard. But Ned suspects that, having heard this fatuous remark from Bush, billions of the world's citizens would have cried: "Yes! Regime change! For America first!"